A boast from Virgin Racing owner Sir Richard Branson promoting the team’s “commitment to focusing upon the environmental impact of Formula 1” has been unearthed as a lie by Bridgestone.

During his visit to the Canadian Grand Prix, Sir Richard gloated that a deal had been struck with a Canadian-based company, Carbon Green, to recycle its race tyres after their use, and claimed it was “the first truly green and highly relevant deal in the history of the sport … old tyres used by Timo Glock, Lucas di Grassi and co will be recycled into useful products.”

However, Bridgestone’s F1 press officer, Andy Stobart, was asked by a particularly clever fan via Twitter if such an arrangement could exist, given that the tyre manufacturer typically takes back all used and unused tyres from the teams at the end of every race weekend and test session.

Stobart did indeed confirm this to be the case, on the grounds of the confidentiality of their tyre technology.

He added, however, that Bridgestone recycles its race tyres, which can be “used for fuel, a positive contribution to energy recovery.”